Making the Most Magical Moment Even More Magical

While I’m heavy into tech gadgets, once in a while a non-tech product comes along that catches my attention and reminds me that as an industry we can take great inspiration from the consumer world. Many of my 50 Principles for Great Customer Experiences come from that sector so it’s no surprise when I see products, like the one below, reinforce those principles.

Personally, it’s frustrating when I get a product that I’ve been excited to own and the event of opening the box turns out to be as meaningful as tearing into a piece of junk mail. It’s as if the company said, “Hey, our product’s great but we don’t care about the customer experience.”

Well, I care. When I open a box, I want to feel the same exuberance I felt when I first saw the product. It’s like a kid opening up a huge wrapped package for their birthday and finding a tiny comb inside (a plastic one at that). When expectations are high and those expectations are not met, disappointment reigns supreme.

And that brings me to one of my 50 Principles for Great Customer Experiences: “Turn unpacking the product into a magical moment.” We buy products because we’re dazzled by them. Don’t let the dazzle fizzle by putting together a weak out-of-the-box experience.

The product that exemplifies this concept to the nth degree is Clifton, a slim-line engagement ring box that you can slide into your pocket easier than your wallet. But wait…there’s more. When you open the box, the ring doesn’t just sit there passively. A pop-up mechanism presents the ring in a most dramatic fashion—as if it were a blooming flower.

And it’s blooming brilliant. But it’s not cheap. The price tag is $90. Then again, as Fast Company wrote: Now, $90 might seem like a lot for a ring box, since most jewelers will just toss in that cheap, fake-velvet-covered cube for free. But given that the average engagement ring goes for $2,300, the Clifton adds just 4% onto the expense. To anyone spending $5,000, $10,000, or more, the added cost is completely negligible for a significant, once-in-a-lifetime event.

For lack of a better phrase, Clifton is the perfect marriage of a great product and a great out-of-the-box experience. And while unpacking a tech product will never rise to that level of memorable, our goal should always be to give consumers a little bit of magic. If you want help getting from “We only care about the product” to “We care about the customer experience,” give me a ring.